milleniumgypsy | On dentists

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On dentists

I feel bad that I haven't been updating regularly this week! I've just been so tired. I was working extra hours at work throughout the week so I could leave early today so I could go to the dentist. I only had to go in today to get a cleaning and a checkup at least! I was really excited to get my teeth cleaned though because this fall I must have been drinking more soda than usual because I ended up with more staining than usual. I've always gotten a little bit of staining over the course of time before my cleaning because I do drink soda and tea, but this time was waaay more than I'm used to. It all got cleaned off though today! I feel like I need to smile at everyone now. lol

The cleaning itself was interesting though. The woman who was cleaning my teeth used a different tool to clean off the stains, it looked like a pick but it had a stream of water and I think it vibrated. As she was cleaning my front teeth she was like spraying water all over my face. I felt like I was going to look like I came out of the pool by the time she was done. Then when she was cleaning my teeth more normally she decided she needed to pack my mouth with cotton gauze. That was odd and kind of uncomfortable. :P
I hadn't had my teeth cleaned by this hygenist before. I was sort of sad because the woman who I'd scheduled with wasn't the one who did it this time, maybe she left? There seems to be turnover there for some reason. The other girl had just been really funny and chatty and made the time go by faster. The new woman was nice and got my teeth cleaned fine though, so despite some of the oddness I can't complain.

Then my old dentist moved to Texas so I met my new dentist today. He talked about getting my wisdom teeth out (I know I need to, but I haven't been able to swing the extra cost of going to the oral surgeon, plus I'd need to take some time off of work to get it done and then how long will it be before I can go back to work... Also dentists freak me right the fuck out so I know I need to but I am not looking forward to this.).

He then also asked me if I'd want to get braces. I do have some crowding in my teeth, but luckily the majority of crookedness is in my back teeth. He said that while I was getting my wisdom teeth out, I could get more teeth pulled out so an orthodontist could work with the extra space.

Then he started futzing around with my tongue, and I was like ooookay I don't know what this has to do with my teeth, then I realized what he was probably doing. I'm tongue tied but it doesn't affect my speech at all, and as I'd have to relearn how to talk and stuff when I was younger we decided it wasn't worth messing with. Anyway, so the dentist is like "Do you have trouble pronouncing certain words?". Do a lot of people who are tongue tied not realize that they are or something? I think it's kind of ridiculous that he seemed to assume that I did not realize this was the case, so he was going to have some sort of big reveal.

He said that I could get my tongue snipped the same time I was getting my wisdom teeth out! I realize getting the most bang for your buck is good since I'd be knocked out, but he really thinks I should get 4 wisdom teeth out, 2-4 other teeth out, and slice up my tongue all at the same time? o_O I feel like I'd want to kill him for the suggestion if I decided it was a brilliant plan to go through with all of it but wouldn't be able to since my face would probably want to fall off or something.

I'm actually ok with my weird teeth so I'm not sure about braces, and I really don't think I'm going to go crazy and pull out ALL THE TEETH when I do go to the oral surgeon. I'm certainly not going to start messing with my tongue. Is it a requirement of a new dentist to make sure that all possible expensive procedures are introduced? e_e

Good news though, no cavities, besides any in my wisdom teeth that we never look at because they're going to get pulled out eventually. I do need to get a couple of things fixed up from the work that my previous dentist did, there's a gap under one of my fillings and flash on a different one. But yay no cavities!

I really didn't mean to make such a long entry about going to the dentist. o_O

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I had my wisdom teeth removed but it was done in two settings. First the two right ones, then the two left ones. I can't imagine having all four at once. I lived of soup and mashed bananas for a week as it was.

Cleaning teeth - you mean, as in whitening them? Or just the regular cleaning which should be done once - twice a year but I hate because it hurts? If you do the whitening, then you are in best company with John Barrowman - he is drinking coffee with a straw at the moment again, so it must have been freshly done.

--> just to prove I can INDEED bring every topic around to John Barrowman, even one about the dentist LOL *is weird*

That makes sense! My husband is getting his wisdom teeth out one at a time because it makes it easier to have a side of the mouth free to use. I just want to get it all done at once because while his extractions have been really easy I doubt mine will be, and since I have to pay extra to be put under.

It's the bi-yearly cleaning, not a whitening session. Cleanings do help in getting my teeth whiter of course by getting off any surface staining! n_n

Barrowman has to keep his pearly whites so he can keep up his electric smile, haha. xD

Considering how quickly the mouth heals, having everything done at once is a pretty good idea. You'd only be drinking milkshakes and eating icecream for a day or two instead of several times.

Although, why'd you'd need other teeth taken out for braces after you'd had wisdom teeth taken out sounds a tad odd to me. Your teeth already have room to spread out - wouldn't you try to work with that new space first instead of removing them? But dentists will only remove a tooth as a last resort, so there must have been a reason.

Teeth are a bit of a morbid subject to me - I've lost the majority of my top teeth due to knocking them out during seizures and now need to wear a set of false teeth - this is after spending thousands on braces as a teen. And I now have to have wisdom teeth removed too. Studpid teeth.

That does make sense, but I just felt like what he was suggesting was a bit much haha.

I'd hope that if I did talk to an orthadontist they'd try to work with my teeth before trying to pull out more? I really doubt that I'm going to go for that though so I guess it's a moot point.

Sorry that you lost your top teeth during seizures. :(
My mom got braces as a teen that ended up not being worth much too, she didn't lose teeth but after they'd spent all the time and money getting them perfect her wisdom teeth came in and basically put them back to where she started. People always want to put braces on teens, maybe that's not the best idea?
Good luck getting your wisdom teeth out! *hugs*

Maybe he was just being thorough? And didn't know what you knew about your own condition O.o

In saying that...I don't think orthodontic is necessary unless you have over/under-bite issues. Its the only reason I had them when I was teen, I had a bit of both and it would have caused problems later down the track, that and I had no room for my wisdoms and had 4 teeth pulled. If its just crooked teeth and your okay with it, I wouldn't bother *lol*

Have to admit, this is the first I've heard of actual tongue-tiedness...I need to look this up, I'm curious now lol.

I'm sure he was just being thorough, he couldn't know what the other dentist had talked to me about. But when I first met with my old dentist, he did the same speel, minus the tongue snipping. So I was sort of amused.

I think pulling out the wisdoms will be good for making space in my mouth, and while I'm sure that braces would help make teeth cleaning easier I don't know that I'd be into going for it even if I could afford it.

Tongue-tiedness isn't the most exciting thing, at least not with me! Which is good. lupinelullaby posted the name of the condition in the comment below, ankyloglossia. xD The only things that happen with me are that I can't really do, erm, tonsil hockey type french kissing (not that I think that I want to? lol I'm very happy with my kissing ability haha); I have to roll my r's differently for spanish, and my tongue gets tired if I get overzealous licking an ice cream cone. xD Well that and I can never imitate Gene Simmons from KISS (not really a loss there).

Ah, fun at the dentist. I never was as a kid, but now I'm a bit dentist shy after having my wisdom teeth extracted.

Even though I was having all four removed, I was awake for it, they just gave me a bit of nitrous oxide... which I noticed absolutely no effect from, and of course the local anesthetic. The doctor ended up causing an opening into my sinus cavity. Yeah... "Oh uh" isn't something you want to hear while in the dentist chair. I needed several more shots of local anesthetic all through the procedure because of the pain. I really wish I had been asleep for it.

I was miserable for about a week afterwards, especially since I couldn't take the vicodin I was prescribed because it made me vomit, but I'm glad I got it all done at once. Everything healed up fine.

And I had never heard of ankyloglossia before either! Thanks for helping me learn something new!

Also... I love your absolutely perfect icon for this post!

Edited 2013-04-06 08:47 (UTC)

I never was nervous about the dentist as a kid either, but now I am! I had a couple really crappy sessions with my old dentist, and that made my dentist anxiety just get worse and worse. :P

I'm now to anxious to even consider getting them pulled while awake, I'd probably freak out. :P

I'm sorry that you couldn't take the vicodin! I know that I can take it because when I sprained my ankle a few years ago I was prescribed some. I don't think I took it longer than a couple of days but it certainly helped.

I do want to get them all done at once so it's just over with, especially since I'm going to have to pay extra to be put under.

I'm just glad that my tongue being tied doesn't affect my speech! The only pronuncation trouble I've had is in spanish rolling r's. I can still do it and the effect is similar, but I have to do it different than normal I think.

I thought that the icon would be appropriate, lol. xD

Ugh, I hate going to the dentist. My dad has had a lot of difficulties with his teeth later on in life, so he insisted that I get my teeth fixed as early as possible.

I hate the dentist too! I used to be better with it though, now it makes me all anxious. :P

As she was cleaning my front teeth she was like spraying water all over my face.
OMG LOL! That must have been so weird!

idk why so many dentists are like WISDOM TEETH OUT, BRACES ON! :D but it's mainly because they get some $$ for sending you of to see someone else if you end up seeing whoever they directed you to. He probably would have thrown in the deep cleaning if it wasn't for the fact that he's new there and not the other way around.

When I was in 4th grade a girl in my class had her tongue snipped. Her parents had it done because they wanted to get rid of her lisp. She came back a couple of days later and she was in so much pain that she just sat around crying the entire day.

They didn't check out your wisdom teeth for cavities? Mine were looked at when I finally landed a good dentist after my last one retired(basically the other ones that I saw were all trying to get me to do a bunch of expensive dental work that I didn't need), and I had cavities in two of my wisdom teeth. I was asked if I wanted to keep them or not because it was a matter of having them filled or pulled. Even if you were going to have them pulled eventually, you would want them filled if there was a cavity unless you knew you were having them out in the near future.

I know, it was really weird! She did keep wiping up the water and I had the dentist saftey glasses on so at least there was that. Although for the rest of the cleaning the glasses were all smeared up and wet so I couldn't see very well. Not that there's anything to look at, but ya'know. lol

I do understand the wisdom teeth out in a lot of circumstances, and braces are probably good because your teeth will wear more normally if they're not crooked? But I do think it's not necessary all the time and I feel like it's pushed because of $$! I'm rather annoyed with my dentist growing up though, he told me that I could keep my wisdom teeth, totally not necessary to remove them. :D
Except I really don't have room for them in my mouth so they're making my teeth more crammed, the teeth sit low in my gums so it's easy for them to get gum infections around them if I'm not super careful; and both of those reasons are why he should have as a dentist actually suggested that I get them pulled instead of suggest to keep them. There's no reason to pull them if they're healthy and you have room for them, but neither of those things were the case. :P I could have got them out for free at the time because we had health coverage and it wouldn't have been a big deal at all to miss a couple of days of high school. Now it's an expensive procedure that I have to figure out work around. :P

Yeah, they haven't been checking my wisdom teeth for anything with the assumption that they're going to be pulled later. I hadn't been able to go to the dentist for a few years so I needed to get work done on a few teeth and so it took a couple of years of working on my teeth with the $2000 yearly limit on dental work from my insurance. Basically I was like "forget those teeth, let's concentrate on what I'm keeping". Now I'm just to the point of maintaining the others, but I'm pretty sure the cavities in my wisdom teeth are worse and would need a lot of work now, so we'd just want to pull them anyway? It's kind of silly. n_n'

I'm going to have to tell my dental higenist about this when I go in to get my teeth cleaned if I remember. Actually, I should check my calender to see when it is since we make them six months ahead of time! Mine is cool and she talks forever and I'm like how do I answer with all of this stuff in my mouth? lol

I do, but in the cases where they can be left because there is no problem I'm like why get them out? I think my brother is going to have a problem because he said that he doesn't have any space for his to even grow in at so he's like... where the heck are they going to come in at?! Every crap dentist that I saw was like YOU NEED THOSE OUT, DEEP CLEANING, AND A BUNCH OF RANDOM EXPENSIVE STUFF THAT YOU DON'T NEED :D One couldn't keep which side of my mouth that all of this "work" needed to be done on!

Yeah, the only problem is if there is a cavity in one of them you wouldn't want to let it get out of control to the point that you ended up needing a root canal on a wisdom tooth and have to rush around to get them pulled. I don't feel cavities so it's always SURPRISE! and I'm like wut, but I had a dentist try and claim that I needed a root canal on a tooth that was fine and cavities in teeth that have already been filled. I've been jaded while looking for a new dentist lol.

Two of my cousins that didn't need braces had them on for two years when they're teeth were almost perfectly straight to begin with. I don't even want to know how many years that I'd be stuck in them if I got them since my teeth are totally not close to being straight lol. Apparently I can now get them fixed by invisaline now(which wow, they've come a long way!), but I can't afford those either. One day lol. Until then my dentist told me how to brush some of my teeth differently to hit the spots that I might miss because they aren't straight.

Why is dental work so expensive though?! A lot of them claim a bunch of work that you don't need that's all conveniently uber expensive too!

That's so odd though. Most dentists are rushing around trying to convince you to get your wisdom teeth removed before they even start to come in or the minute one is there when there's no problem with them and can be left alone. You had the opposite!

I don't get asked about deep cleaning, but I'm not sure what that actually is. n_n' It might be what they do for me since it takes them longer than normal to give me my cleanings, but it's just charged to my insurance as a regular cleaning?

Yeah I don't want it to get to that point, but because of cost I can't really go earlier either. n_n' My teeth can be sensitive in some ways, but I was really surprised with how many cavities I actually had when I finally got to the dentist after my dentist hiatus. I really wasn't in pain or anything, I thought I might have a couple small things, not the amount of work I ended up needing!

I wish dental work wasn't so expensive! I wish health care in general wasn't so expensive. :/

My teeth are pretty crooked, luckily mostly in the back, but like you I can't even imagine how long it would take to make them "perfect". n_n''

I know, it's so weird, especially after being out in the world and having other dentists and talking to other people about their dental experiences! He was really odd comparitively, I wish I'd had your more standard dentist encounter back then lol.

You'd know if you ever had a deep cleaning! They have to numb your mouth for it and it's not covered by dental insurance. Depending on the dentist, it can run anywhere from $400-$800+

There are a lot of dentists that bust it out on new patients and claim that they CANNOT do any of the other expensive dental work that you may or may not even need until you get the deep cleaning. It's mostly older people that need it because of the large plaque buildup over their lifetime. Once you have it done the chances that you need a deep cleaning ever again is extremely slim, let alone once a year. You can read about deep cleanings. It's not an in and out thing like a teeth cleaning and you can't eat anything spicy or acidy because it will burn the bajesus out of your gums for a bit after that.

I don't care about perfect teeth lol. I used to want braces until one day I realized that I didn't want braces because I wanted straight teeth, I wanted braces because OTHER people wanted me to have straight teeth. The too straight teeth look is rather ugly to me XD Most people come out of braces with the too straight teeth look and I would hate it. My grandma and aunt spent years in braces, especially my grandma because she had really bad teeth. My aunt wasted all of that dental work on drugs. Her teeth are now dead and she's pissed because no dentist will do any work on her unless she's getting them removed and prepped for dental implants or dentures.

lol, its one of the few times that you wished you had one that tries to wam bam everyone's wisdom teeth!

Ah, I see! I haven't had that then!

I get what you mean about too straight teeth! I also am not interested in whitening, besides the questionable aspects of whitening, I'm not really sold on blazing white teeth. It doesn't look natural! Obviously I want to keep them looking nice, but I do think there is a point that it's too much. n_n'

That sucks about your aunt!
I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in braces either, I'm not sure it's worth it to me.

haha, I know! I think he was fine otherwise, but I really have to grumble about taking that advice now. :P

Same here. I can see whitening them because of staining, but not like shining white teeth from a distance lol.

Same here. Plus, having braces glued to the inside of your mouth and applying wax to them to try and prevent that does not sound like anything anyone would want!

Poor wisdom teeth lmao. A guy I went to school with had his removed and when they tried to put him under he was still awake and fine. So they did it again and he was still awake so they removed them. Then he went home and everything hit him and he was out the entire night lmao. He was one of the few that had no pain from their removal so we can hold a prayer circle that yours will be the same when the time comes!

lol omg, that is so random that he wasn't out until well after the procedure! At least he got a good nights sleep? xD I'm glad that he didn't have pain afterwards!

Scottie actually has had pretty easy extractions, he's pulled them one at a time as they become an issue. He could have gotten at least one of them out at the same time he did the last one, but he decided since it wasn't hard to just wait so that he'd only have to worry about one spot at a time. He has the space for them so they're pretty easy and he doesn't have the dentist anxiety that I do, so he's just gotten them pulled out without being knocked out. I hope that I have that sort of luck but I don't think that I will. n_n'

ikr?! It was so strange!

Well thats good! At lot of people that instead of getting them all out at once, or before they even start to come in the first place if there is space for them. My brother has dentist anxiety due to a bad dentist he saw when we were kids. This lady was crazy. Plus his a big baby so the two together did not go well lol. She filled a couple of cavities and she yelled at me the whole time. Plus she was drilling so hard that I was in intense pain and had to have my mouth renumbed a few times even though the pain was not because it wore off. She was the children's dentist. Anyway, he freaks out before the dentist from the memories of that crazy woman and all he had was a teeth cleaning from her! Was it a bad experience that got you?

It was a bad experience I guess! I was alright with dentists when I was a kid, even though I had a lot of fillings and stuff. I even had a couple of teeth pulled! But something triggered me to start having anxiety (not really sure what or why actually.

When I started seeing my most recent dentist though stuff really started to go downhill. He actually said more recently that he thinks I have a bad reaction to novicane, which is possible. But the first time that I went to see him to get work done the experience was just awful. First off, during the checkup he didn't actually tell me how many cavities I had so I wasn't actually sure what I was getting into when I went to my appt. Then they set me up with a really uncomfortable mouth opener (dental dam?) thing... and then I sat waiting for the dentist unable to close my mouth for like 15 minutes. I have a small mouth so those things are really uncomfortable for me. My jaw was starting to hurt before he even got there. Then he worked on 3 teeth, by the end all I could think about was how much my jaw/face hurt from being stuck open (and it was still sore days afterward). Then one of the teeth he was drilling he was like "Oh hey I see nerve, want a root canal?". He said it looked healthy so he just put medicine down on top of it and filled it. I couldn't have even imagined going for a root canal at that point. Then when they heat the filling resin it takes all I have to not throw up, the smell makes me so nauseous. I was in there for like 3 hours. Every time after that I was just dreading it would be another visit like that, though I made sure he told me what was going on before I got to my appts. :P

I also don't seem to take novicane very well, so it takes a million pokes before stuff is actually numb. :P

Also, it's weird. My dentist never talked about taking out my wisdom teeth (I still have all four!)

We ended up with the weird dentists I guess? lol It could be you just have healthy wisdom teeth and enough space for them?

Don't worry about not posting. We understand.

I'm kind of skeeved out by dentists these days after reading about that dental practice in Oklahoma where they think people got HIV. >.

I know, but I like to do it so I was bummed that I never seemed to have time to. n_n'

Dental practices giving people HIV? DX *runs flailing*

I have a horror of the dentist so I think a long entry afterward is therapeutic :D

I had my wisdom teeth out many years ago. One on each side was impacted and the dentist said there was no point in keeping the other two. I was completely under because I gag a lot during dental procedures. They also took care of some cavities as well. You definitely need to plan for a few days off. It might be more cost effective in terms of cash and recovery time to get it done all at once. I felt awful and goofy the first day and then just uncomfortable for the next three. I lived on meal replacement shakes for the duration.

I want to curl up in horror at the thought of getting one's tongue snipped.

xD I have so much anxiety about the denist now, zomg. lol

I certainly want to get all of the wisdom teeth out at once for cost effectiveness, but the extra teeth pulling and tongue snipping seemed kind of over the top. lol

I am not a fan of the idea of snipping my tongue either. *hides*

It's trial by fire for me which is why I'm glad I found one who lets me ask lots of questions and take breaks if I need to.

It is a lot to do, especially if there's no desperate need to take out the other teeth. It's weird how upselling has crept into every aspect of life.

I had braces and then didn't wear my retainer so my teeth have shifted. I don't mind, it keeps me unique. Eventually I'm capping the front ones to repair the damage from grinding but crooked teeth can look neat.

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